File retrieval from a crashed drive

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Re: File retrieval from a crashed drive

Post by piscator » Sat May 16, 2015 7:11 am

Shouldn't be a problem if we can get the disc to spin up...
Interesting that bios says both drives are in the same "IDE" location. Are they not both SATA drives? Why the legacy terminology from your system, are you using old IDE cables...
Image

...or nice SATA cables...
Image

...to connect your drives? Are your drives IDE and not SATA?

If a drive expects a SATA controller, it may not work with an IDE, which are usually for slower optical drives nowadays.

I need you to shutdown and unplug the computer, plug in the old drive, boot up and raise a Mint terminal, and post the output from:

~$ sudo uname -a
~$ sudo lsdev
~$ sudo lspci -tv

If it spits out too much to post, give me the first 2 and we can filter the third once we know the names of your discs. (You also have to highlight, right-click, and select Copy with your mouse in the terminal. You can't use the Ctl-C/Ctl-V.)

Also:
Maybe the old drive will spin up if you connect to a different port on the mobo? It says "Channel 3", so there's probably 0,1, & 2 as well, either in use or free.

Also, google the linux "Mount" command while you wait on me. Tutorials abound.
And Hard drives make torque and need a fixed mounting in your computer, BTW. Make sure hard drives are always securely mounted in their case slots when you power them up.

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Re: File retrieval from a crashed drive

Post by Hermit » Sat May 16, 2015 8:02 am

Both drives are connected via SATA cables to Sata ports on the motherboard, and they both spin up. The mobo itself supports SATA 2 and SATA 3 drives, I am told, are backwardly compatible.

~$ sudo uname -a spits out the computer name, which is my user name plus the mobo's ID. Also 3.13.0-37-generic #64-Ubuntu SMP

~$ sudo lsdev and ~$ sudo lspci -tv return "command not found"

Might that be due to the drive being unmounted? I'll continue looking into the mount issue now.

And lol, I discovered that the shortcuts don't work and resorted to the mouse and menu before I read your last sentence. Idiot me for not reading to the end.
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Re: File retrieval from a crashed drive

Post by piscator » Sat May 16, 2015 9:10 am

Don't know why lspci doesn't work....

Try:

~$ sudo lshw -class disk -short


Should output a table showing at least an optical drive and 2 sata drives and their /dev/names. Post it here.


SATA is a form of IDE, and evidently American Megatrends or whoever chose that nomenclature. Some choose to call the optical controller (PATA) "IDE Interface", and use "SATA Controller" or interface for SATA2 or 3 connections.
But I've used hard drive, drive, disc, and HDD to refer to the same thing in this thread, likely in one post. Who am I to talk?

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Re: File retrieval from a crashed drive

Post by Hermit » Sat May 16, 2015 3:55 pm

It does now. :think:
~ $ sudo lspci -tv
-[0000:00]-+-00.0 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] RS880 Host Bridge
+-01.0-[01]--+-05.0 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RS880 [Radeon HD 4200]
| \-05.1 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RS880 HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 4200 Series]
+-0a.0-[02]----00.0 Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
+-11.0 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [IDE mode]
+-12.0 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
+-12.1 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0 USB OHCI1 Controller
+-12.2 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
+-13.0 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
+-13.1 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0 USB OHCI1 Controller
+-13.2 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
+-14.0 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SBx00 SMBus Controller
+-14.1 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 IDE Controller
+-14.2 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
+-14.3 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC host controller
+-14.4-[03]--+-07.0 Philips Semiconductors SAA7134/SAA7135HL Video Broadcast Decoder
| \-0e.0 Texas Instruments TSB43AB23 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)
+-14.5 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI2 Controller
+-18.0 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 10h Processor HyperTransport Configuration
+-18.1 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 10h Processor Address Map
+-18.2 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 10h Processor DRAM Controller
+-18.3 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 10h Processor Miscellaneous Control
\-18.4 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 10h Processor Link Control
And ~$ sudo lshw -class disk -short returns:
/0/1/0.0.0 /dev/cdrom disk DVD-RAM GH22NP21
/0/2/0.0.0 /dev/sda disk 2TB WDC WD20EZRX-00D
/0/3/0.0.0 /dev/sdb disk 1TB WDC WD10EADS-00M
In "Computer" all drives are visible, but only the optical drive shows up under "Devices" in the left hand side bar. Clicking on either of the other two still results in "Cannot mount location".
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Re: File retrieval from a crashed drive

Post by piscator » Sat May 16, 2015 8:28 pm

+-11.0 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [IDE mode]
Your SATA controller is in IDE mode. Which is why I was curious. Your IDE controller is also up. I don't think your SATA controller should be in IDE mode for WD Green drives. You may have to change the SATA controller settings in BIOS. We'll try to determine that with mount.

(Who built this computer BTW? HPs and Dells don't have Gigabyte mobos and WD drives...)



Your drives seem to be spinning up and identifying themselves. I want to look how your file systems are mounted

~$ mount
(should return a list of file systems and mount points)



~$ sudo mount -a
(this attempts to mount all drives and file systems in them)


If mount -a doesn't work, it should throw an error code. If it works, it should return the terminal prompt and your old drive should be mounted.

If it does not work, we'll run fdisk, create a mount point, and force mount. That's when I'll need the output of mount and mount -a.

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Re: File retrieval from a crashed drive

Post by Hermit » Sat May 16, 2015 8:44 pm

~ $ mount returns this:
/dev/mapper/mint--vg-root on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys/fs/cgroup type tmpfs (rw)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,size=10%,mode=0755)
none on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=5242880)
none on /run/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /run/user type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=104857600,mode=0755)
none on /sys/fs/pstore type pstore (rw)
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext2 (rw)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
systemd on /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd type cgroup (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,none,name=systemd)
gvfsd-fuse on /run/user/1000/gvfs type fuse.gvfsd-fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=s)
/dev/sdb1 on /media/s/STORE N GO type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uid=1000,gid=1000,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,showexec,flush,uhelper=udisks2)
/dev/sdc1 on /media/s/Elements type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,default_permissions,blksize=4096)
/dev/sr0 on /media/s/GIGABYTE type iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev,uid=1000,gid=1000,iocharset=utf8,mode=0400,dmode=0500,uhelper=udisks2)
~$ sudo mount -a goes straight back to the command prompt.

As for the BIOS, I cannot recall an option to do with the SATA controller. All I know is that the mobo supports SATA2 and has sockets for four internal and one external SATA drives. Also, the original SATA drive has functioned well enough for 6 years.

The following was written while you were posting the above, so it's a sort of xpost:


I'm not getting anywhere. Everything I plug into USB ports gets recognised and listed as a device immediately, and the devices show up automatically on the desktop screen. Neither drive that is directly plugged into the motherboard's SATA ports does, although they do show up as devices when I boot the Mint liveDVD. Weird.

The command ~ $ sudo fdisk -l floods the terminal with the following results. I spoilered them because they do go on for a bit, and I bolded a couple of lines because they seem to point to a problem. Have not discovered what they mean exactly, let alone what to do about them.
Trigger Warning!!!1! :
~ $ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0007ce7d

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 499711 248832 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 501758 3907028991 1953263617 5 Extended
Partition 2 does not start on a physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda5 501760 3907028991 1953263616 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/mapper/mint--vg-root: 1996.2 GB, 1996245434368 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 242696 cylinders, total 3898916864 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/mapper/mint--vg-root doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/mapper/mint--vg-swap_1: 3753 MB, 3753902080 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 456 cylinders, total 7331840 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/mapper/mint--vg-swap_1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/sdb: 7813 MB, 7813988352 bytes
64 heads, 62 sectors/track, 3846 cylinders, total 15261696 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 8064 15261695 7626816 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
Note: sector size is 4096 (not 512)

Disk /dev/sdc: 3000.6 GB, 3000558944256 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 45599 cylinders, total 732558336 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00028375

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 256 732558335 2930232320 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Disk /dev/sdd: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x7d797d79

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 * 63 1953503999 976751968+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
In my opinion I need to know the locations (/sda#) of the disks before I write from one to the other using dd or dd_recover. Without knowing the path there is a chandce of overwriting the content of the good disk with the bad one.
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Re: File retrieval from a crashed drive

Post by piscator » Sat May 16, 2015 9:20 pm

Hermit wrote:
/0/1/0.0.0 /dev/cdrom disk DVD-RAM GH22NP21
/0/2/0.0.0 /dev/sda disk 2TB WDC WD20EZRX-00D
/0/3/0.0.0 /dev/sdb disk 1TB WDC WD10EADS-00M

/dev/cdrom is your CD

/dev/sda is your new 2TB hdd

/dev/sdb is your old 1TB hdd



But now I see:

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
Disk /dev/sdb: 7813 MB, 7813988352 bytes
Disk /dev/sdc: 3000.6 GB, 3000558944256 bytes

*

/dev/sda1 * 2048 499711 248832 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 501758 3907028991 1953263617 5 Extended
Partition 2 does not start on a physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda5 501760 3907028991 1953263616 8e Linux LVM

*


1. WTF did this 3TB drive (/dev/sdc) suddenly appear from?
2. Who set up LVM and the logical partitions on your Mint install? Did you decide to choose Advanced Options and set up LVM, multiple partitions, and a blocksize of 4096 when you installed Mint? Did you select and name mountpoints when you installed Mint?

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Re: File retrieval from a crashed drive

Post by Hermit » Sat May 16, 2015 9:34 pm

The 3TB drive is my backup. Connects via USB. I plugged it in to see what Mint makes of it. Sure enough, it appeared as a device straight away.

LVM was an option given in the standard installation procedure. From memory a note went with it saying that with it I can add/change partitions later on if I so wish, so I clicked to include the feature.


Well, at least I now know the drive names. Missed that earlier, even though I copy/pasted them myself.

Still, it is mysterious that none of the drives connected via SATA appear as devices while all others do. Until they do, I don't know how to work with files therein, set paths and so on. Looks like I have a lot to learn.

That said, Linux is preferable to the nannyish and domineering bloatware that Windows is becoming. While Apple is clearly a very elegant and solid system I will never buy a product from those monopolistic, avaricious cunts.
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Re: File retrieval from a crashed drive

Post by piscator » Sat May 16, 2015 10:08 pm

Problem is mounting the old drive. We need to figure out why it won't mount.
If the hardware shit the bed, you are out of luck in all cases, but at least you're now running Linux. But if the drive hardware failed, the drive likely would be bricked. It's not.

Possible avenues:

Fix your SATA controller settings in BIOS. It seems to be set on IDE PATA instead of SATA like it needs to be. See if that helps get you get mounted after you boot back up. (It may prevent boot if there's a true compatibility or firmware problem at work. So remember what you did like you may have to undo it ).

================

You say the Live CD recognizes the old drive? Boot the Live CD and plug in your backup drive. If you can get all the drives to mount, copy your files off the old drive (don't Cut, it's harder on the old disc) to your backup and be done with it.
Mint shouldn't have have any problem seeing your Windoze files on your backup usb drive unless it's fucking encrypted or otherwise blocked by some paranoid security scheme you have previously deployed on that drive.

================

Maybe invoke gParted and maybe some screen grabs (F13) if we have to. I haven't run Mint in a couple years, but somewhere in the menu is a Disk Utility that may have the capability to repair a partition's metadata. "System>Administration" menu or something like that.
There's also Clonezilla, like rEvo mentioned. I've never needed it, but it's a Live CD Linux distro specialized in disk chores that may have several gParted (Gnome Partition Daemon) enhancements and other goodies bundled in. This software would do essentially the same thing a Windows System Recovery disc might do with the MBR.

fdisk, frightens me at this point,as I'm not so familiar with it, and it can break things... :(

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Re: File retrieval from a crashed drive

Post by piscator » Sat May 16, 2015 10:52 pm

Booting with the Mint CD and copying/pasting over may be the cure. As the installed system may be trickier to deal with...


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Re: File retrieval from a crashed drive

Post by Hermit » Sun May 17, 2015 2:00 pm

I have not seen either, though I've dug around in the Ubuntu forum a fair bit during the past couple of days. My conclusion is that most of all I need to come to grips with the basics of Linux, followed by an understanding of commands and their parameters and switches. That is how I learnt MS DOS before Win3.1 arrived. Right now I don't even know how to call up a particular directory and move it to somewhere else. FFS, I don't even know what command would pop the equivalent of Notepad up, or to save a file into a directory I need to specify.

At the moment the learning curve seems overwhelmingly steep, and frustrating at times, which is of course not helped by issues that may be hardware based or due to an easily rectified but yet to be discovered configuration setting. At the same time it is a bit of an adventure, a virtual trip into the unknown and a challenge. Being taken out of one's comfort zone can be exciting in a good way.

Whatever. I should thank you for the effort you have put in to help me along so far. If KLR, Rachelbean and Pappa put their tuppence worth in, that would be appreciated as well.

At the moment I'm coming around to the view that the BIOS will need to be updated. The mobo is signposted as SATA2 capable, but having followed up one of your suggestions, I discovered that the disk was indeed running in IDE emulation mode. I switched it to AHCI. Unfortunately that did not fix anything. Besides, maybe it has nothing to do with how the drive is controlled. After all, the drive does mount and it does show up when I boot Linux up via the liveDVD.

Right now I'm too tired to do anything serious, having slept from 9-12 this morning and not at all last night. So I'll just graze on the internet for a while, then hopefully get a useful number of hours of sleep.
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Re: File retrieval from a crashed drive

Post by piscator » Sun May 17, 2015 9:49 pm

You don't have to do any of that from the terminal. Trying to stand flat-footed and use a Linux terminal without any instruction or experience is a cruel joke. That's why we got you a desktop system, so you can take a few years to pick up the bitchin' ASCII art and Lynx skillz.
You don't know about users, standard file hierarchies, standard command syntax, standard help manuals, ...a lot of things. You couldn't possibly know. So just relax about it. You'll pick it up over time. Having a deep-OS task like a problem disk is why it's stressful at this point. My intro problem was getting Broadcom wireless going with Dapper Drake in the pre-B43 days on a lappy with a broken ethernet jack. I broke the entire operating system and had to reinstall at least twice before I figured it out. The rest I had the liberty of learning at my own pace, but I would still catch my hair on fire to figure things out because that shit's fun.
You also have a functional system you can rebuild from scratch in about 1/2 hour. You'll soon learn how to play fast and loose without needing a nap afterwards. :tea:

Giving terminal commands to sort shit out is simply a Linux internet convention, BTW. You have a desktop operating system. Most everything common has a desktop tool you can use with a mouse, but they differ in name and capability by Desktop Environment and distro. Choice, friend. Linux has it. :{D

The BASH terminal (aka "shell") is pretty much common to all Linuxes, and the terminal is the most powerful tool in the computer, and terminal commands are usually similar between Debian-like distros. So most of the terminal commands that work on my Crunchbang will work on your Mint, because they share a lot of Debian DNA. This also applies to configuration file locations and paths, which are usually similar in distros based in the same bloodline, or package manager.

Moreover, if someone has already typed out the commands, pasting them into the terminal (aka 'command line") is ultimately easier for you and the computer than invoking a desktop program and selecting options. (WinXP command line didn't have C/P, you have to type everything.)

~$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

sudo = superuser do = make yourself root for the duration of the command; prompts for a password unless you've entered it in the last few minutes

apt-get= package manager 'apt" fetch any updated from closest package repository mirror

&&=when the previous command finishes, start the next command

dist-upgrade=distribution upgrade=dist-upgrade "in addition to performing the function of upgrade, also intelligently handles changing dependencies with new versions of packages"

One hint I can give: since you have a desktop, you don't have to dick around with vi or nano or emacs or any other terminal-based text editors. You can just invoke your desktop text editor. so instead of vi etc/network/interfaces you can use gedit etc/network/interfaces (or whatever your desktop text editor is) so you don't have to learn a new language to comment out a line of text or correct a misspelling. Editing text on a fucking terminal is a world unto itself. You don't want to go there.

Until you learn the names of your file manager and text editors (which vary by distro) and other common tools, call the sucker up from the desktop, go to the "About" or "Help" tab on the program, and read the name and version of the program. Looking around, your file manager may be "Caja", and it looks like a nutless Nautilus, so you probably have to go to a terminal and type "gksu caja" to open as Superuser to write and maybe read locked files. Invoke it from the desktop and do the "About" check I mentioned anyway. You can probably invoke it from the terminal by whatever that name is. Works for other programs too, but not all... :naughty:

Did an image search and found this slideshow that might help make sense of all those folders you have scattered through your computer:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/138547/h ... tem-layout
http://www.slideshare.net/davidclark99/ ... management


==========================


Don't know if you've looked into your disk controller in BIOS yet, but you want to be sure you're running those drives as SATA, instead of some dead slow legacy protocol. There may be a lot of backwards compatibility between a new Mustang and an old Pinto, but they are not equivalent. Just make sure you are using the SATA controller to operate the disks in SATA mode. If you pulled the CMOS battery at some point, the mobo and its disk controller may have defaulted to douchebag settings. We just need to eliminate this as a source of non-mountability, since your computer's output shows the SATA controller in "IDE mode", as if there were others, like "SATA mode" or "On" or "Off".

Since Windows just quit working, I think the source of the original problem is that your old HDD has bad sectors or potential bad sectors under the MBR and/or its partitioning tables, which renders the HDD unreadable. So after you've confirmed your disk controller settings are indeed all they can be, you should run

~$ smartctl -a

Potential bad sectors may be reparable with a few clicks in your desktop Disk Management tool, which is probably the great gParted you've heard about.
Go into your disk utility from your desktop menu. Probably under Admin, or System, or maybe Accessories. Desktop menus vary.

You may have to ~$ sudo apt-get install gparted, which is a graphical program, so will pop up something to click at when you invoke it with ~$ sudo gparted
It should tell you you have a problem disk as soon as it comes up.


... :pop:

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Re: File retrieval from a crashed drive

Post by Hermit » Mon May 18, 2015 1:00 am

Yes, I followed up on your suggestion a couple of days ago. The drive(s) were indeed running in IDE emulation mode. I switched to AHCI and made some other change connected with that. Unfortunately that did not fix anything. I contacted the mobo manufacturer's customer supprt, but have not heard back yet.

As for command lines, having started on computers a couple of years before M$ released the first useable GUI overlay, Windows 3.1, I quickly became adept at using them. My first computer did not even have a mouse for a year. I made do with creating batch files that enabled me to quickly launch my three most frequently used programs. HItting <Alt-F>, for instance, would start my office suite. Its name was First Choice and was delivered on three 5� inch floppies. A fat hardcopy manual came with it. Then I started automating spreadsheets like fuel consumptopn records and generating shopping lists and bookkeeping. They introduced me to subroutines and conditional branching.

Even after programs became point and click affairs I frequently found keyboard actions faster, more customisable and more powerful. Speaking of powerful, funny what mischief one can get up to when one encounters the product of some idiot software engineer who ignores passwords and permissions. :mrgreen:

Image

The first Linux Mint shortcut I learnt was to bring up the terminal. I typed in "sudo" without any parameters, and this is what I got:

usage: sudo -h | -K | -k | -V
usage: sudo -v [-AknS] [-g group] [-h host] [-p prompt] [-u user]
usage: sudo -l [-AknS] [-g group] [-h host] [-p prompt] [-U user] [-u user]
[command]
usage: sudo [-AbEHknPS] [-r role] [-t type] [-C num] [-g group] [-h host] [-p
prompt] [-u user] [VAR=value] [-i|-s] [<command>]
usage: sudo -e [-AknS] [-r role] [-t type] [-C num] [-g group] [-h host] [-p
prompt] [-u user] file ...


Yeah. Right. A bit more complicated and most likely more versatile and powerful than most DOS commands, and unlike the DOS /? switch, you get no helpful hints. Guess I'll get to that later, but get back to that I will.

Meanwhile I keep searching for ways to get all my devices to show up on the device list. Until that is done, or unless it becomes obvious that my hardware cannot do it and I have to bodgey up an alternative way to get the job of retrieving what is retrievable done, the damaged drive stays disconnected. I figure that it is likely to lose more sectors every time it spins up. Ideally, in the end I'll reconnect it run a command or two, then let the computer transfer whatever it can from it to another drive without deleting whatever else is on it.

Once again, I am greatful for your support and assistance.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops. - Stephen J. Gould

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piscator
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Re: File retrieval from a crashed drive

Post by piscator » Mon May 18, 2015 1:40 am

~$ command ? or ~$ command help to bring up help for whatever command you want. There's also ~$ man command which will spit out the manual for the command, none of which are very helpful unless you understand the syntax and already know most of what you need. There's also ~$ apropos subject. Google is almost always better, as tutorials you find online are often written in human-parsable language. :{D

I know maybe 15 Linux commands without looking them up, and I'm pretty fluid compared to most. Everything else, I look up, then forget soon after. You will too, soon enough. If you don't get enough reps, you don't remember things. And if you don't get a lot of reps, there's not a lot of point in committing shit to memory, because you don't need it often enough. :pardon:


You still need to get gParted up to check and maybe get that old disk to where you can copy your important files off it onto Mint or your backup drive. Unless you're a torrent freak, there's probably less than a few gigs of shit that you don't already have backed up, so you won't need anything but a couple open tabs on your file manager to Copy/Paste the whole dead disk thing from the practical to the abstract...
I don't know how you propose to figure out the problem, then just turn the disk on to type a command that will fix things. Metaphysics, maybe? :levi:

http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/100
http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/244


Get gParted. :ddpan:

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